Inside The Bills

In our exclusive interview with Bills GM Buddy Nix and head coach Chan Gailey about what unfolded in the Bills draft room on the first two days of the draft there were a few items that wound up on the cutting room floor. Here’s one of them.

I asked Buddy if there were more trade offers on day two of the draft than day one, and he said there were. More offers were to have Buffalo move up the board. Ultimately, the Bills decided not to move up in round 2 feeling they stood a good chance to get the guy they wanted staying where they were.

“There was only one team that called for us to move back that wanted to move up to our spot,” said Nix. “And it was way back and we wouldn’t consider it. It was too far back. We wouldn’t have probably considered it anyway because we felt like we were going to get one of the targeted guys. The other people were the same people wanting to move back and have you move up. Again we didn’t panic and move up and give up some spots and it worked out good.”

Buffalo sat right where they were and still got Cordy Glenn, an offensive tackle they considered taking in round one.

“For what you gained at that point in time for what you had to give up it wasn’t that big of a decision for us,” said Gailey. “To me I think Buddy said, ‘Hey we’re this close, why not guarantee ourselves the pick, just to give up a seventh rounder in this draft.’ We already had another seventh rounder so it wasn’t like that was a huge leap of faith or anything. It was just trying to insure that we got one of those fast guys.”

Nix said that Buffalo liked four of the speed receivers that they felt were worthy of coming off the board at that time in round 3, but three of them were already gone and it was still a few picks away from when the Bills would be on the clock.

Be sure to watch the Inside the Draft Room special as there are many other behind the scenes events that went down in assembling this year’s draft class.

As part of our Inside the draft room special on Buffalobills.com, GM Buddy Nix and head coach Chan Gailey walk us through what happened in the draft room through the course of the team’s first three choices, and what teams were interested in making possible moves with Buffalo.

After taking Stephon Gilmore in round one, the Bills zeroed in on Cordy Glenn with their second-round pick. But with only two offensive tackles coming off the board in round one there was concern that the run on tackles could start before Buffalo’s ninth pick in round 2.

“We were concerned,” said Nix. “The thing we felt good about was we had four guys at that pick (that we liked) and we thought one of the four would be there. We didn’t know if it would be a tackle or not. As it turned out it was, but one of the four would’ve been there.”

Knowing there were eight picks before Buffalo’s and they had four players they liked at 41, I followed up by asking Buddy if they were sweating just a bit.

“Obviously you sweat it. You can’t help but have your favorites,” he said. “We kind of knew what five of the picks were going to be and we knew our guys were going to be there.”

Just wanted to make everyone aware that our much anticipated Inside the Bills Draft room special is now available at the media center of Buffalobills.com. Here’s a small snippet of what Bills GM Buddy Nix revealed to us regarding trade talk and their top pick at 10th overall.

There were a couple of teams in frequent contact with the Bills and it wasn’t to have the Bills move down, but rather up higher in the top 10.

“They were both in the top 10,” said Nix. “They both made calls before the draft and then made them before their pick. Same two to move to the same spots. Again we usually let it come to us and that’s what we did again.”

When I asked if the price to move up was too steep Nix said it wasn’t.

“It wasn’t a high price,” he said. “It was very reasonable. We could’ve moved easily, but I look at the guy we got and the pick they wanted for us to move up and it wouldn’t have been worth it.”